Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Blackburn (Baron), Colin Blackburn
BLACKBURN (Baron), The Right Hon. Colin Blackburn, second son of the late John Blackburn, Esq., of Killearn, co. Stirling, by Rebecca, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Gillies, was born in 1813, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. as a high Wrangler in 1835. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and for some years went the Northern circuit. For about eight years he conducted, with the late Mr. Ellis, the regular recognized Reports in the Court of Queen's Bench, and the eight or ten volumes of "Ellis and Blackburn" are of high authority. He published an excellent legal work "On Sales." At Liverpool he had secured a large amount of business in heavy commercial cases, when, in 1859, he was made a puisne judge of the Queen's Bench. On that occasion he received the honour of knighthood. In Oct. 1876, he was made a Lord of Appeal under the provisions of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act (1876), and created a peer for life under the title of Baron Blackburn. In Aug. 1878, he was nominated a member of the Royal Commission appointed to consider the provisions of a draft Code relating to Indictable Offences.